


it's a great big world, darlin'

by starlight_sugar



Series: The General Specific [10]
Category: Rooster Teeth/Achievement Hunter/Funhaus RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe - Professors, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-01
Updated: 2016-04-01
Packaged: 2018-05-30 13:38:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,558
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6426070
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/starlight_sugar/pseuds/starlight_sugar
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“Thank god that’s over, I’m tired of living in someone else’s soap opera.”</p><p>(Or: Jon continues to live in other people's soap operas. It's to be expected by now, really.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	it's a great big world, darlin'

**Author's Note:**

> Rooster Teeth does not have my permission to use any portion of my writing in their content.

“Okay,” Jon says, “let’s try this again.”

Jordan groans loudly. “No, this isn’t going to work, I’m sober this time.”

“That’s exactly why this is going to work,” Jon says patiently. “Because you’ll be able to remember it clearly in the morning.”

“I remembered what happened last time.” Jordan turns to Cole, giving him a pitiful look. “Don’t let him do this to me.”

Jon shakes his head immediately. “No, nope, I just need ten minutes. I’ll even pay for the first round. We’re going to work through this, goddammit.”

Cole shrugs. “Sorry, Jordan. It’s for the good of your relationship.”

“Cole, what the fuck,” Jordan halfway whines. “It’s your job to give me alcohol.”

“It’s also my job as your friend to make sure that your relationship is in good shape,” Cole announces. “Jon and I are going to fix your love life. Start from the beginning.”

“I hate you,” Jordan announces, and leans against the counter of the bar. “Okay, so Brandon and I have been dating for two months. And I’m looking for a new place to live, and he has a nice place, so he asked me to move in with him.”

Jon is pretty sure that last time Jordan tried to squeeze advice out of him, that story took at least four times as long to tell. It is, he decides, a hell of a lot easier dealing with Jordan when he’s sober.

“Okay,” Cole says, and turns to Jon. “I’m here for moral support, but you’re going to be doing the actual advice, right? Because I don’t know how to do this.”

“You’re awfully nosy for moral support,” Jon tells Cole, but he turns back to Jordan. “Okay. Are you happy dating him?”

Jordan pauses. “I mean. Yeah?”

“That didn’t sound very sure,” Cole murmurs.

Jordan glares at him. “I’m happy! I like him, and I like being around him.”

“But you don’t want to live with him,” Jon says.

“That’s where it gets complicated,” Cole announces, in the tones of somebody who has heard this story before.

“Yes and no,” Jordan sighs. “I mean, maybe one day? But right now I don’t feel like I know him well enough to live with him, and he doesn’t get that. He thinks that it’d be fine to just… jump in.”

“That’s the main conflict,” Cole announces.

Jon shoots him a sidelong glance. “I thought you were here for moral support, not advice.”

“I’m supporting,” Cole says peacefully. “With context. I listen when he talks about his problems, I don’t know if you do, Jon.”

“I think you should break up with him,” someone announces.

Jordan doesn’t turn around. “Shut up, Joel.”

Jon can barely believe his fucking ears, but when he turns, Joel is sitting at a bar table, sipping beer and watching them idly. From next to him, Jack from the film department gives Jon a small wave. Jon raises his eyebrows. “So you’ve heard this before.”

“I may have talked about it before,” Jordan admits. “Maybe everyone in here knows about it.”

“Brandon comes here pretty often.”

“We wouldn’t tell Brandon,” Jack says, sounding almost affronted. “Jordan’s problems are his business.”

“And I wouldn’t expect them to tell me if Brandon says anything about me,” Jordan adds. “But Joel thinks I should just break up with him.”

“There’s no fucking point in drawing it out.” Joel shrugs, looking totally unapologetic. “You have a fundamental difference in how you view this relationship-”

“For the time being,” Jordan says tiredly. Jon takes a moment to be glad that he doesn’t come to this bar often enough to have the same conversation multiple times. Even if he doesn’t have the widest circle of friends, at least they’re all interesting enough to talk about different things when they see each other.

Joel doesn’t even seem deterred. “-and it’s not going to work out, when you want different things.”

“I think you should just do what feels right,” Cole announces. “It’s his place to work around you.”

Jordan turns to Jon, and Jon understands why Jordan wanted to be drunk for this. “This is the worst conversation I’ve ever had.”

“Have you tried explaining to Brandon that you’re not ready yet?” Jon asks, because it needs to be said.

Jordan shifts in his stool, looking suddenly uncomfortable. “I mean, he knows I’m not as enthusiastic as him about it, but-”

“Bullshit, that’s a yes or no question,” Jon says. Everything makes sense now. He never expected a day where he was the most put-together out of all of his friends, in terms of relationships, but at least he and Miles actually fucking talk to each other. “You haven’t told him why yet, have you?”

“I.” Jordan sighs. “Not really?”

“Start there,” Jon says. “It’s that easy. Talk to him, explain what you’re feeling, get him to do the same thing, and-”

“Oh,  _ fuck, _ ” Joel says loudly. Jon turns to glare at him, only to see him rifling through his wallet. “I don’t have enough on me.”

“Bullshit you don’t,” Jack says, looking painfully smug. “Pay up.”

“Shit, I owe him money too,” Cole mutters.

Jordan looks thunderstruck. “Were you betting on whose advice I was going to take?”

“And I fucking lost,” Joel grumbles, smacking a crumpled bill into Jack’s hand.

Jack glances at Jon, eyes dancing. “You said the same thing that I’ve been saying for two fucking weeks.”

Jon grins. “Oh, you mean the logical thing to do? The thing that makes sense?”

“Yeah, the thing that people in stable long-term relationships recommend tends to be the right thing,” Jack says agreeably. “Which you just proved, so thanks for that.”

“Do I get a cut of the winnings?”

Jack reaches into his pocket, digs around, and comes up with a quarter, which he tosses to Jon. “There you go.”

Jon glances at Jordan. “Do you feel appropriately advised now? Got a game plan?”

“I guess,” Jordan admits. “Thanks, Jon.”

“No problem. And like I said, first round’s on me.” Jon drops the quarter on the counter with a satisfying clink. “And I’m twenty-five cents richer than I was before.”

“That goes a long way towards whiskey,” Cole says, and drops the quarter into the tip jar. “Thank god that’s over, I’m tired of living in someone else’s soap opera.”

.

From: Meg (11:48 AM)   
I’m getting dragged into a meeting when you’re at the studio :(

From: Meg (11:49 AM)   
Ash says she can get you to the right room, I’ll try to get out early and see you

To: Meg (11:51 AM)   
You invite me into a strange place and then abandon me?

From: Meg (11:52 AM)   
:((((

To: Meg (11:53 AM)   
Tell Ashley I’ll be there at 1.

.

The news studio is one of those can’t-miss-it buildings in town. There are half a dozen broadcast studios, but everyone knows which one the news studio is. Jon doesn’t really know why competitors even bother with local news, because he’s never met anyone who doesn’t watch the main station, but he supposes there must be a market for it.

Either way, Jon has never been to the news studio before, and there’s something oddly intimidating about parking in front of it. It’s a landmark, and here he is, about to enter it and fuck with the status quo.

Ashley is waiting in the front doors, and she waves at him when she sees him. “You’re about to become everyone’s favorite person,” she announces as soon as he’s in earshot.

Jon doesn’t want to say he understands why, but he also doesn’t know how a professional news station has lasted so long with titles that look like they were made by a 15-year-old using Photoshop for the first time with no idea what the words “aesthetically pleasing” mean. “I have the mock-ups done,” he says instead of insulting Ashley’s livelihood. “Meg said you guys have some graphics software-”

“That’s not my department,” Ashley says immediately. She waves a keycard and unlocks the door, and pulls Jon into the only iconic building in town. “Don’t get me wrong, if you can fix it then I love you to bits, but I don’t understand any of what you’re saying.”

“You don’t know what graphics software is?”

Ashley rolls her eyes. “You know what I mean.”

“Well, apparently you don’t know what I mean.”

“You’re being difficult.” She veers down a hall, and Jon follows her, trying not to be too obvious as he looks around the studio. It’s pretty fucking cool. “I’m technically supposed to be in that meeting Meg is in right now, so I’m just going to drop you off and then ditch you.”

Jon sighs. He’s apparently friends with the busiest people at this station. “Is this about the promotion?”

“Yeah, probably. I wish they’d just bump me up and get it over with. It’d be easier for everyone.” They stop in front of a computer lab, and Ashley doesn’t bother knocking before she opens the door and pokes her head in. “Hey, Larr, graphics guy is here.”

A head pops up from behind a monitor, eyes narrowing at Jon. “Is this him?”

“No,” Jon says, “she just pulled me off the street. The graphics guy is at the check-in desk.”

The guy adjusts his glasses and nods. “Yeah, we’re gonna get along just fine. Thanks, Ashley.”

Ashley claps Jon on the shoulder. “Have fun,” she says, and goes off to whatever meeting she’s supposed to be in. Jon makes a mental note to try and schedule his studio visits further in advance, if they need him to come back. Maybe that way the only people he knows won’t ditch him.

“i didn’t get your name,” computer guy says, still watching him. Jon realizes that he hasn’t moved from the doorway yet.

“Jon. Risinger,” he says, and makes his way over to the computer next to him.

Computer guy sticks a hand out. “Lawrence. Sonntag, if it matters. I do fact-checking and computer maintenance. I’m in charge of making sure you don’t break our system.”

“What, you don’t do graphics?”

“I can Photoshop,” Lawrence says. “Sort of. You may have noticed that we don’t exactly have a graphics department.”

Jon shakes his head. “How does a news studio not have a graphics department?”

“I’m pretty sure that someone high up on the food chain just doesn’t realize that it’s important. We have templates that we can use, and apparently that’s all we need.” Lawrence shakes his head. “Fucking corporate, man.”

“Amen,” Jon says with feeling, and pulls his flash drive out of his pocket. “I don’t know what kind of software you’re working with, but I have mock-ups-”

“Oh, by all means.” Lawrence gestures at the computer in front of Jon. “I’m mostly here to keep you from getting bored, so if that happens, let me know. I’ll make sure that shit doesn’t happen.”

“Sure. Tell me about yourself,” Jon says, partly to get some background noise and partly because it’s always interesting what people say.

And Lawrence does. He seems to be one of those people who’s okay with just talking, which is good. Jon likes the stream of consciousness chatter that he gets. He asks about the software and points out things in the graphics, but mostly he talks about the news station.

“Do you have a favorite coworker?” Jon asks absently, adjusting a shade of blue.

“Yep,” Lawrence says immediately. “I’m not gonna say who it is, that shit gets around quick, but I definitely have one.”

“Is it Meg?”

“Meg’s all right, but she’s not my favorite. She’s the one who recommended you, right?”

Jon changes the contrast on a shadow. “Yeah, I work with her boyfriend. Did this look better before?”

Lawrence peers a little closer at the screen. “Yeah, it did,” he decides. “Which boyfriend, the actor or the photographer?”

“Actor. Although I don’t act, I’m a professor.” Jon hits undo. “You’re right, that’s better.”

“Of course I’m right,” Lawrence says, almost instantly. “So you teach. Graphic design?”

“Yep. I get lots of kids just looking for a fine arts credit.”

“Do you enjoy it?”

“Oh, absolutely.” Jon grins. “It’s pretty funny seeing what they think passes for good design at the beginning of the semester.”

“I’ll bet,” Lawrence mutters. “Man, I don’t know how you do it. My boyfriend’s an elementary school teacher, and it’s just-” he shakes his head. “I couldn’t be a teacher, I think you guys are fucking magic.”

“I could never produce news, so, you know, it’s a good thing you’re here. I could never do elementary school, though. Too many kids at once.”

“Yeah, I’m with you, it sounds overwhelming. Sean’s good at what he does, though, and his kids love him.” Lawrence looks a lot softer around the edges, and Jon can’t help but smile at that. “Some people just have superhuman patience, you know?”

“Yeah,” Jon says, thinking about Miles and how much his students love him, too. He opens a ticker tape mock-up. “Okay, so what’s the weirdest story you’ve ever had to do?”

.

Meg and Ashley practically skid into the room just as Jon is polishing the credits scroll. Jon smiles at them both. “Done meeting with people?”

“Hi, Jon, hi, Lawrence, can we see the graphics?” Meg says, out of breath.

“Did you run here?” Jon says, re-gluing his eyes to the screen. “You know the graphics will still be here when I’m gone, right?”

“I like Jon,” Lawrence announces. “I think he should be our graphics department.”

“Right now, he is our graphics department,” Ashley says as she comes around to stand over Jon’s shoulder. “Oh, god, that’s so much better than what we have.”

“You don’t say,” Jon says dryly. “Is there anyone who needs to approve these designs, or am I good to go?”

“Bruce should probably look at them,” Lawrence points out.

“Yeah, but Jon doesn’t have to be there for that part,” Meg says, now next to Ashley behind Jon. “We should’ve hired you so long ago, why didn’t we do that?”

“That’s a really good question,” Jon says. “You want to see all the titles before I get out of here?”

“Jon, don’t leave me,” Lawrence whispers.

“We’re sorry about him,” Ashley says. “We promise we won’t let him follow you home.”

Lawrence shakes his head. “They can’t stop me.”

“I feel like I should be concerned for my safety,” Jon says, but that just makes Lawrence grin at him. “He’s smiling, is that supposed to make me feel better?”

“Just show us the titles and make an escape,” Meg says, but Jon can hear the smile in her voice.

Jon glances at Lawrence. “I’ll come back and visit. Make sure you’re treating my graphics right.”

“Good,” Lawrence says, and leans closer to the monitor. “He did a good job, you guys are gonna like these.”

.

From: Meg (6:12 PM)   
Good news: Bruce (our producer) says the titles are a go!

From: Meg (6:13 PM)   
Also Lawrence wants your number so he can ask you about movies or something

To: Meg (6:31 PM)   
You can give it to him.

.

From: Miles (7:48 AM)   
so i’ll pick you up at 5 tonight?

To: Miles (7:50 AM)   
hi miles it’s chris don’t tell jon I took his phone

To: Miles (7:51 AM)   
I’m only here to install tetris and get a really good high score while he’s in the shower

From: Miles (7:52 AM)   
you are a hero, Christopher

From: Miles (7:52 AM)   
jon is absolutely going to kill you when he sees this, but you’re going to die a legend

From: Miles (7:53 AM)   
anyways tell him to text me when he gets back

To: Miles (8:02 AM)   
I can’t believe you encouraged him.

From: Miles (8:03 AM)   
is he good at tetris?

To: Miles (8:05 AM)   
Really infuriatingly good. That fucker.

To: Miles (8:05 AM)   
5 sounds good. see you then

From: Miles (8:06 AM)   
<3

.

“So,” Jon says, keeping his eyes on his Photoshop window. “How was your weekend?”

“Good,” Matt says. Jon can tell without looking that his nose is buried in his phone. “It was, you know, time off. Useful.”

“Yeah,” Jon says, and gives up all of his self-restraint. What he’s about to do is unprofessional, probably a little rude, and definitely going to blindside Matt, but he can’t help it. He’s incredibly curious. “I didn’t realize you knew Jeremy.”

He still isn’t looking at Matt, but he can tell when he stops moving. “I do,” he says cautiously.

“He’s in one of my intermediate classes, he must’ve taken intro with a different professor,” Jon continues. He’s already figured this much out, just from knowing how the department works, but he can’t help but wonder if that was intentional, with this new context.

“We went to high school together,” Matt says carefully. Jon is struck by how similar it sounds to when Jeremy said it. “I haven’t seen him in a couple years.”

“Campus isn’t that big.”

“Campus is as big as you need it to be.”

Jon can’t let that slide without a sidelong glance at Matt, whose fixation on his phone seems to be on a deeper level than normal. “You know that’s physically not true, right?”

“I mean in terms of.” Matt waves a hand vaguely. “People.”

“Yeah,” Jon says, and really, he’s going to have to be more direct here. He hopes Matt won’t mind. “How’d you know each other?”

“We dated a couple years in high school and broke up the day after graduation,” Matt says, almost absentmindedly, and Jon blinks. He hadn’t expected something so… honest. “I wanted to go to a different university, and we decided long distance wouldn’t work. Of course, now I’m here, and so is he, but, you know. Shit happens.”

“I’m sorry,” Jon says, and he means it. He might not be curious anymore, but that was a real dick move.

“It’s fine. It’s been a couple years, I’ve got new friends now,” Matt says, and drops his phone to his lap, looking at Jon. “So is it my turn to ask weirdly invasive questions?”

“I think that’s fair,” Jon admits. He can handle that.

Matt blinks. “I wasn’t expecting a yes.”

“I don’t think either of us were expecting this conversation.” Jon spreads his arms. “Ask away, c’mon.”

“How long have you known Dr. Luna?”

“Not terribly long.” Jon frowns, trying to think back. “Two or three years. He was one of the first people I met when I started working here.”

“Do you guys have a cute story about meeting? Love at first sight?”

“I slapped him in the face.”

Matt laughs. “That’s even better. Why’d it take you two years to get together?”

“We were friends for a long time,” Jon says. All told, he doesn’t know how long Miles had feelings for him, or when going out for lunch together turned and interrupting class turned into some kind of courtship ritual. He’s never asked. He’s all right not being sure. “But we ended up where we are through the power of accidents and destiny.”

Matt coughs.

“And interference from my loving students,” Jon says as dryly as he can.

“Yeah, yeah,” Matt says, and picks his phone up again. “No offense, Professor Risinger, but next time I’m in here, can we just not talk, like normal?”

“Yeah, that sounds like a good plan.” Jon pauses and goes back to Photoshop. “And you can call me Jon. If that’s not weird for you.”

“I- what?”

Jon shrugs. “You’re in here three days a week and apparently we talk to each other about boys now.” Matt makes a gagging noise, and he can’t help but grin. “I don’t mind if you want to call me Jon.”

There’s a pause, probably while Matt processes the paradigm shift that Jon has just caused, and then he announces, “Ben’s going to be so pissed. I can’t wait to just drop your first name in a conversation and watch him light up.”

Jon snorts. Ben is going to be absolutely furious that he isn’t the first in their group to get first-name privileges. He halfway wishes he could see it.

.

From: Miles (3:44 PM)   
how was your day, dear?

To: Miles (3:45 PM)   
Taught some classes. Accidentally had a heart-to-heart with a former student.

From: Miles (3:47 PM)   
wow, okay, your day sounds a lot weirder than mine

To: Miles (3:47 PM)   
Mistakes may have been made.

From: Miles (3:48 PM)   
you can tell me all about it when we go out tonight. deal?

To: Miles (3:49 PM)   
Deal.

From: Miles (3:54 PM)   
okay i’m dying to know what’s chris’s high score on tetris

To: Miles (3:55 PM)   
Ask him.

From: Miles (3:55 PM)   
have you beaten it yet

To: Miles (3:57 PM)   
I don’t understand how he can’t fit groceries in the fridge without something falling out but he can play an 80 thousand point game of tetris in the fifteen minutes it takes me to shower

From: Miles (3:58 PM)   
so that’s a no, huh

.

Date night number thirteen, as per Miles’s plan, is a trip to a paint-your-own-pottery shop. Jon doesn’t know how Miles finds these places, but it’s a nice little shop with pre-made bowls that they can paint. It’s a cute idea. Jon is pretty sure he has a great boyfriend.

“Jon, yours looks better than mine,” Miles half-whines after about twenty minutes of jealous glances across the table. “How did you do that?”

Jon looks at Miles’s bowl, which is striped red and yellow. The stripes are crooked, but they’re still clear. “You’re not doing half bad, you know.”

“Yeah, but yours!” Miles pouts, and Jon has to stop himself from laughing. “I changed my mind, I want yours instead of mine. Can I have your bowl?”

“No way, this is mine.” Jon carefully shifts his bowl a little closer, trying not to smear any of the neat polka dots. “I have an art degree, Miles, I can paint you another one sometime.”

“I don’t want another one,” Miles sighs, but he goes back to dabbing yellow paint onto his own bowl. “Would you really make me one?”

“Would I make you, my loving boyfriend, who I’m in love with, a clay bowl?”

“Yeah.” Miles grins. “It’ll be a token of your love. A love bowl.”

“Love bowl,” Jon repeats. “I’ll make it for you if you don’t call it a love bowl.”

“I won’t call it a love bowl while you’re there to hear it.”

Jon rolls his eyes and goes back to painting his bowl, trying to ignore the knot that’s slowly coiling in the pit of his stomach.

The thing is, with Jordan talking about Brandon and moving in, he’s been thinking about living with Miles. And life with Miles. The idea of a future isn’t scary to Jon, but the idea of sharing that future is something new, something he never fully expected that he’d have. And now here he is, painting a ceramic bowl and thinking about how it’d be easier for them to just both be able to use the bowl than to have to make a new one for Miles. They use the same kind of toothpaste, work in the same place, want the same number of dogs. They fit together.

But with all he knows about Miles, they haven’t talked realistically about a future yet. He doesn’t know if Miles wants to stay in town for the rest of his life or if this was supposed to be a stop on the way somewhere. He doesn’t even know if Miles planned on being a professor or if he fell into it, the way Jon did.

He looks up at Miles, unable to keep the curiosity from spilling over. “Hey, Miles?”

“Yes, love.”

Jon wonders what it says that these pet names are slowly sounding less and less ironic. He kind of likes it. “How long do you think you’re going to keep teaching?”

Miles sets his paintbrush down and looks at Jon, brow furrowed. “What?”

Jon shrugs. “I mean, I’m just.”  _ Thinking about a totally hypothetical but also incredibly probable shared future, _ his brain supplies, which he ignores. That’s hard to say aloud. “Thinking.”

“I don’t know,” Miles answers thoughtfully. “I don’t really know what else I could do, and I enjoy it. I’d probably keep going until I found something better.”

“Okay,” Jon says, and goes back to his bowl.

Miles barks out a laugh. “Uh, you have to answer too.”

“You didn’t ask.”

“It’s implied, Jon, you can’t just ask people to question their future in their stable career and not give them the same answer.”

And Jon thinks about it. He thinks about being fresh out of his undergrad program, teaching intro classes while he worked on his master’s. He thinks about being determined to freelance and how it didn’t pay nearly as well. He thinks about Matt, who comes into his office for three hours a week, and Ben back for his second semester in a row with Jon, and Trevor and Maggie who for some godforsaken reason liked him enough to help play matchmaker. He thinks about being sure this job was on the way to being somewhere else and how he’s been teaching half a dozen years now. He thinks about how he didn’t even hesitate when Lawrence asked if he enjoys it.

“I’m going to keep teaching until they drag my corpse out of a classroom,” he decides, and Miles laughs out loud. “And that’s the gospel fucking truth.”

Miles leans across the table, not noticing the edge of his bowl catching on his shirt and creating a red splotch, and plants a firm kiss on Jon’s forehead. Jon wrinkles his nose, more on instinct than anything, but he grins at Miles. “What?”

“You’re cute when you’re serious,” Miles says fondly, and settles back into his chair.

Jon grins. “You got paint on your shirt.”

Miles looks down, and his eyes bulge when he realizes that he does indeed have a patch of red on his shirt. “Oh, what the fuck, this was one of my nice shirts!”

“You own four shirts that look almost exactly like that.”

“Shut up, I can’t take you out for dinner wearing this.”

Jon raises his eyebrows. “Are you going to take me to dinner shirtless?”

“Maybe,” Miles says, and dips his still-yellow paintbrush in Jon’s blue paint, swirling it around.

Jon yelps. “Hey, what the fuck are you doing?”

“I want green,” Miles announces, ignoring Jon glaring daggers at him. “You have enough blue dots, make some green ones.”

“I’m going to give you this bowl because it’s ugly now,” Jon mutters. The worst part is that the shade of green is a pretty good fit with the two shades of blue already on the bowl. That shouldn’t work, but somehow it does.

“I’ll love it anyways,” Miles promises, painting absent green criss-crosses on his bowl. “Because you made it, even if it’s ugly.”

“What a kind soul,” Jon says, trying not to smile, and paints the first green dot onto his bowl.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you all a lot for your patience with me between updates! Hopefully things should kick back into gear now and go back to a vaguely-regular schedule. In the meantime, you can always listen to our title song this time, [How to Live](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o9NhiIs7vdQ) by Band of Horses, and as always chat with me on [Tumblr](http://elysewillcms.tumblr.com) or [Twitter.](http://twitter.com/ezrabridgers)


End file.
